THE  GAON 
OF  WILNA. 


The  Gaon  of  Wilna 

A  Review  of  His  Life  and  Influence 


MENDEL    SiLBERj 

Rabb,  of  Temple  Emanu-El.  DJatk.   Mi 


Reprinted    from 

THE  MACCABAEAN 


THB   MACCAB^SAN   PUBLISHING  COMPANY 

547  Broadway,  New  York 

1905 


Copyright,  1905, 
Vr  MBNDBL.  SII.BWK 


The  Cameron  Press 
<os-(X)  E.  4<d  St 


IB?  Hlma  abater 


PREFACE. 

THE  present  work  deals  with  the  life  and 
importance  of  one  of  the  most  remarkable 
figures  in  Jewish  history.  There  is  scarcely 
a  reader  of  Hebrew  to  whom  the  name 
of  the  Gaon  Elijah  of  Wilna  is  not  more 
or  less  familiar.  Yet,  often  as  his  name 
occurs  in  Hebrew  literature,  and  significant 
as  are  his  achievements  in  numerous  fields 
of  endeavor,  he  is  quite  unknown  even 
by  name  to  the  reader  who  is  dependent 
for  his  information  upon  English  publica- 
tions. This  work  would  seem,  therefore, 
to  require  no  apology;  but  a  word  or  two 
as  to  its  nature  may  not  be  out  of  place. 

One  of  the  most  difficult  tasks  connected 
with  the  compilation  and  presentation  of 
the  material  before  us  consisted  in  discrim- 
inating between  the  true  reports  about  the 
Gaon's  life  and  work,  and  such  exaggerated 
and  fictitious  statements  as  will  always 
gather  about  the  memory  of  the  truly 
great.  This  undertaking  was  the  more 
difficult  as  almost  all  of  his  biographers,  in 
7 


their  intense  admiration  for  the  man,  have 
permitted  themselves  to  be  influenced  by 
popular  notions  about  him.  I  have  en- 
deavored to  avoid  falling  into  a  similar  er- 
ror, and  have  omitted  all  accounts  which 
seemed  to  me  to  bear  the  stamp  of  legend- 
ary origin,  except  a  few  examples  which  I 
have  preserved  for  purposes  of  illustration 
and  have  grouped  in  a  separate  chapter 
under  the  head  of  legends.  If  after  that  my 
description  still  appear  too  partial  and 
favorable,  the  fact  will  be  due  not  to  blind 
admiration  on  the  part  of  the  writer,  but 
to  the  surpassing  greatness  of  one  of  Is- 
rael's rare  geniuses  whose  life  forcibly 
calls  to  mind  the  Talmudic  exclamation : 

In  conclusion  I  wish  to  express  my  sin- 
cere gratitude  to  my  friend  Mr.  Ephraim 
Deinard  for  having  placed  at  my  disposal 
his  magnificent  collection  of  Hebrew  books 
and  manuscripts.  My  thanks  are  also  due 
to  Mr.  A.  S.  Freidus,  of  the  New  York  Pub- 
lic Library,  for  assistance  rendered  in  the 
gathering  of  material.  And  lastly  I  ac- 
knowledge my  obligation  to  my  friend  and 
colleague,  Rabbi  Joseph  Jasin,  for  some  val- 
uable suggestions. 

Duluth.  Minn.,  Sept.,   1905. 


CONTENTS. 

Chap  1.  THE  GAON'S  LIFE n- 

Chap.  II.  THE  GAON  IN  LEGEND 2« 

Chap.  HI  IMPORTANCE  OF  THE  GAON 26 

Chap.  IV.  THE    GAON'S    OPPOSITION    TO 
CHASSIDISM  43 

Chap.  V.  THE  GAON'S  DISCIPLES. 53 

Chap.  VI.  THE  GAON'S  WORKS 62 

Chap.  VII.    REFERENCES    68 


THE   GAON   OF    W1LNA. 


CHAPTER  I. 
His  LIFE. 

ELIJAH,  son  of  Solomon,  was  born  on 
Tuesday,  the  I5th  of  Nissan  (April  24th), 
1720  (i),  in  Wilna,  the  "Jerusalem  of  Lith- 
uania." His  father  was  a  very  poor  but 
learned  man,  who  occupied  himself  with 
•nothing  but  the  study  of  the  Law,  and  who 
was  supported  from  a  fund  which  a  rela- 
tive, R.  Moses  Rivkes,  had  left  for  indi- 
gent scholars. 

Elijah  was  very  handsome  and  displayed 
;  great  cleverness  already  as  a  child.  At  the 
age  of  six  he  was  able  to  dispense  with  a 
teacher,  and  a  few  months  thereafter  he 
delivered  an  address  in  the  "Grand  Syna- 


(i)  Elijah  was  born  in  1720,  and  not  as 
Graetz,  Fuerst,  and  Steinschneider  have  it, 
in  1722.  Their  mistake  is  no  doubt  due  to 
a  mis-statement  in  the  introduction  to  the 
Schulchan  Aruch,  where  the  date  is  given 
as  1722.  That  this  is  a  mistake 
is  evident,  for  in  1722  the  1 5th  of  Nissan 
fell  on  a  Thursday  and  not  on  a  Tuesday. 

II 


gogue''  of  Wilna.  Ths  address  was  taught 
him  by  his  father,  to  whom,  perhaps,  most 
of  the  credit  is  due.  However,  the  very 
fact  that  he  was  permitted,  as  a  mere  child 
of  six  and  a  half  years  to  speak  from  a 
pulpit  which  was  usually  reserved  for  great 
and  famous  scholars,  shows  that  he  must 
already  have  been  held  in  high  esteem. 
His  lecture  surpassed  all  expectation,  so 
much  so,  in  fact,  that  R.  Hoeschel,  who 
was  rabbi  at  that  time,  invited  him  to  • 
"sholosh  s'udoth"  (afternoon  meal  on  Sat- 
urday) at  his  home,  where  all  the  scholars 
of  Wilna  were  assembled.  His  wonderful 
subtlety  of  mind  and  extensive  knowledge 
astonished  all  present. 

As  though  fearing  that  he  might  be  mis- 
led by  his  contepmoraries,  Elijah  joined 
no  Talmudical  school,  but  studied  alone. 
Only  for  six  months  did  he  go  to  Keidan 
to  study  under  R.  Moses  Margolith.  Dur- 
ing his  short  stay  in  that  town,  one  of  the 
most  prominent  Jews  in  the  place,  R.  Judah 
Loeb,  engaged  his  daughter  Treine  to  him. 

After  his  return  from  Keidan,  he  began 
to  study  with  unequalled  assiduity.  His 

12 


biographers  (no  doubt  exaggerating  some- 
what) tell  us  that  at  the  age  of  nine  he 
was  already  versed  in  all  the  branches  of 
Jewish  lore,  the  Bible,  Talmud,  Midrash, 
and  Code.  The  next  six  months  he  de- 
voted to  familiarizing  himself  with  the  Zo- 
har.  At  the  end  of  this  neriod,  in  order  to 
make  up  for  his  temporary  neglect  of  Tal- 
mudical  studies,  he  returned  to  them  with 
increased  zeal.  When  the  eve  of  Sim- 
chath  Torah  came,  he  had  still  to  go 
through  two  of  the  most  difficult  tractates, 
Zebachim  and  Menachoth,  but  he  completed 
them  in  .one  night.  When  this  became 
known  he  was  examined  in  these  tractates 
and  was  found  to  know  them  by  heart. 
His  natural  endowments  were  so  great  that 
at  the  age  of  ten  he  had  already  the  knowl- 
edge of  a  Talmudic  scholar.  When  he  was 
eleven  he  was  not  only  a  thorough  Hebraist 
but  had  also  unravelled  the  mysteries  of  the 
Kabbalah;  and  at  the  age  of  thirteen  he 
was  recognized  by  all  Talmudists  as  a 
great  and  accomplished  scholar.  In  addition 
to  his  native  powers  he  possessed  a  real 
love  for  learning.  He  not  only  sought  to 
acquire  a  thorough  knowledge  of  the  Baby- 
13 


Ionian  and  Palestinian  Talmuds,  the  To- 
septha,  Mechilta,  Siphri,  and  Siphro,  the 
earlier  and  later  Poskim,  and  grammar, 
which  the  other  Talmudists  of  his  time 
entirely  neglected,  but  he  also  studied  phys- 
ics, mathematics,  astronomy,  metaphysics, 
music  and  medicine,  as  far  as  these  branches 
were  accessible  to  him.  This  love  of  study 
seems  to  have  made  even  the  laws  of  nature 
subservient  to  him,  for  he  slept  only  two- 
out  of  the  twenty-four  hours,  and  partook 
during  the  day  of  only  two  meals  consist- 
ing of  dry  bread  and  water.  On  cold  winter 
nights  he  would  have  no  fire  in  his  room 
lest  he  should  fall  asleep,  yet  his  health  was 
not  affected  by  this  mode  of  living. 

In  order  to  experience  all  the  hardships 
of  "goluth"  he  left  his  home  in  1740  and 
traveled,  clad  like  a  beggar,  through  Po- 
land and  Germany.  At  first  he  was  taken 
for  insane  in  many  places  on  account  of  his 
wearing  the  talith  and  tephilin  and  because 
of  the  constant  moving  of  his  lips  in  study. 
Later,  however,  he  must  have  been  recog- 
nized, for  upon  his  return  to  Wilna  in. 
1748  (2),  he  was  so  famous  that  when  a  con- 


(2)   Cf.  Introduction  to  Shulchan 
14 


troversy  between  R.  Jonathan  Eibenschuetz- 
and  R.  Jacob  Emden  broke  out,  the  former, 
though  Elijah's  senior  by  about  thirty 
years,  appealed  to  him  in  a  letter  for  a  de- 
cision of  the  case  (3).  Referring  to  that 
letter,  Eibenschuetz  writes: 

"P^  >KMVS  'nrtfB>  p 
••DDH  •spra 

tj>np 


jnu  I^K  '»r  '^K  n"i» 


nso  5»": 

In  reply  to  this  letter  the  Gaon  wrote  that, 
as  a  young  man  and  so  distant,  he  could 
not  meddle  in  a  controversy  of  such  great 
scholars. 

The  position  R.  Elijah  occupied  at  Wilaa 
was  that  of  a  private  individual.  As  Graetz 
remarks,  he  was  the  ideal  teacher  in  the 
Talmudic  sense,  for  he  made  his  learning 
"neither  a  crown  to  decorate  himself  with 
nor  a  spade  to  dig  with."  He  could  never 
be  prevailed  upon  to  accept  the  position  of 
rabbi  or  any  other  office  in  a  Jewish  com- 
munity, a  thing  which  was  very  unusual 

(3)  Luchoth  Hoeduth  7/6. 
15 


for  a  scholar  in  his  time.  The  universal 
admiration  he  enjoyed  and  the  influence  he 
wielded,  were  due  solely  to  his  sound  teach- 
ing and  his  exemplary  life.  The  same  mod- 
esty and  love  of  independence  which  made 
him  decline  an  office  also  forbade  him  to 
publish  his  works.  At  a  time  when  the 
-desire  for  fame  and  the  fad  of  publishing 
works  was  so  great  among  the  Talmudical 
scholars,  the  Gaon  did  not  publish  any  of 
his  writings. 

Ever  happy  and  contented,  his  only  wish 
was  to  go  to  Palestine  for  the  purpose  of 
settling  there ;  and  it  is  reported  that  at  an 
advanced  age  he  left  Wilna  for  a  journey 
to  the  Holy  Land  and  that  for  some  un- 
known reason  he  changed  his  plan  and  re- 
turned to  his  native  town. 

In  spite  of  his  hard  labors  and  the  many 
privations  he  had  to  endure,  Elijah  enjoyed 
good  health  almost  all  his  life.  In  1791  he 
'became  ill  for  the  first  time,  but  refused  the 
services  of  a  physician.  Instead  he  sent  for 
the  Maggid  Jacob  of  Dubno,  whose  learned 
conversation  was  a  source  of  joy  to  him. 
He  soon  recovered  and  for  five  years  again 

16 


enjoyed  good  health.  In  1796  he  became 
ill  for  the  second  time,  but  he  recovered 
and  resumed  his  work.  Two  years  later  he 
became  ill  for  the  third  and  last  time.  On 
the  Eve  of  Atonement,  1798,  he  called  his 
children  together  and  blessed  them  as  he 
felt  his  end  approaching.  From  that  time 
his  illness  grew  daily,  and  on  the  fifth  day 
of  Sukkoth  (October  loth),  he  died  at  the 
age  of  78,  with  a  contented  smile  on  his 
face. 

Contrary  to  the  Jewish  law  which  pro- 
hibits the  holding  of  funeral  services  on  a 
holiday,  sermons  were  preached  in  every 
synagogue,  and  the  death  of  the  great  and 
sainted  man  was  universally  mourned.  It 
is  reported  that  on  the  day  of  the  funeral 
all  the  shops  of  the  city  were  closed  and 
that  all  the  people  went  to  pay  the  last 
tribute  of  respect  to  their  departed  leader, 
so  that  when  the  time  arrived  for  ~min- 
cha  no  minyan  could  be  found. 

The  grief  of  Wilna  was  shared  in  by  all 
the  Jews  of  Russia  and  of  other  lands. 
"Wilna  wept  for  the  pride  that  was  taken 
from  her,  the  many  disciples  of  the  Gaon 

17 


bewailed  the  loss  of  their  master  and  the 
Jews  in  general  wept  for  the  Ark  of  God 
that  was  taken  away." 

So  great  was  felt  to  be  the  influence  and 
authority  of  the  Gaon's  opinions,  that  after 
his  death  it  was  deemed  necessary  by  the 
rabbis  of  Wilna  to  issue  a  circular  pro- 
hibiting the  use  of  his  name  as  a  sanction 
for  any  questionable  act,  except  in  cases 
where  a  definite  statement  bearing  on  the 
•matter  could  be  found  in  his  writings. 

The  hundreds  of  funeral  orations  held 
•on  the  death  of  Elijah,  if  gathered  to- 
gether would  form  a  small  library.  Only 
six  of  these  have  been  preserved  and  are 
enumerated  in  Jellinek's  "Kuntreth  Hamas- 
fid"  (p.  6)  : 

I. — By  Aaron  of  Kinishin  in  "Adereth 
Elyahu;"  Warsaw,  1798. 

2. — By  Isaac  Eizeck  of  Keidan,  in  "Yek- 
ora  Deshochbi;"  Altuna,  1799. 

3. — By  Moses  Zeff,  of  Bialystok,  in  "Agu- 
dath  Ezob;"  Bialystok,  1804. 

4.— By  Hillel  ben  Zeff  Wolf,  of  Bratzki, 
•in  "Hillel  ben  Shachar;"  Bialystok,  1804. 

5. — By  Judah  Loeb  Edel  Halevi,  in 
18 


"Aphike  Jehudah"  (vol.  I,  serm.  8)  ;  Lem- 
berg,  1824. 

6. — By  Abraham  Danzig,  author  of 
"Chaye  Adam"  and  "Chachmath  Adam"  in 
"Sha'are  Rachamim"  Wilna,  1871. 

Shortly  after  his  death,  a  tombstone  was 
erected  on  his  grave  bearing  the  following 
inscription : 

!  nn« 

mry-i  n^DJ  urnx  ^  *?y  5>njn  ^3T 
iynp  ,0^0^11  n^y  in 


^0133 


njn  mv  "n 

i^^n  '^r  *D  /yiotj'  p 
DV 


13  "spas  n»s  nnin 

nosn  ••:«  ^ip  jnn  minn 


nnyi 

no  nijyi  'n^on  rn^ns 


n33io  n^yoi 
os 

19 


ayoa  fnoo  noo  imin 
,D  oiiBon  Tonn  pwn  ann  n"n 


rpjn  s^  ^"1201  ,nTx»  IDDI  ,a" 
nwy?  ^nan  o  ny 
nmn  nivo  nnnni  / 

innnan  fpon  nrm 
ny  nifv5  ino^i  IQIJ  t 

ijm»  Kin  ,-i 
,ynom  noann  IIPD 


nato  '10  anna  i 
D"-"    nva 


20 


CHAPTER  II. 
THE  GAON  IN  LEGEND. 

THE  legends  told  about  the  Gaon  are 
innumerable.  The  uneducated  Jew — for 
there  is  not  a  single  Jew  in  Russia,  be  he 
ever  so  ignorant,  who  does  not  know  some- 
thing of  the  "Wilnaer  Gaon" — pictures  him 
as  an  old  man,  bending  in  his  talith  and 
t'philin  over  a  large  scroll,  in  which  he 
studies  Mishna,  Talmud,  Poskim,  and  all 
other  branches  of  knowledge,  for,  having 
mastered  the  entire  literature,  he  could  do 
nothing  but  go  back  to  the  original  source 
of  knowledge,  "The  Scroll."  The  educated 
have  a  more  correct  idea  of  the  man,  but 
they  too  are  influenced  to  some  extent  by 
the  popular  conception,  as  is  shown  in  the 
writings  on  the  Gaon.  We  shall  cite  only 
a  few  of  the  many  widely-circulated  anec- 
dotes related  of  him: 

After  the  years  of  his  wanderings  had 

expired,  and  Elijah  was  about  to  return  to 

Wilna,  the  people  of  Lissa  sent  him  with 

great  pomp  to  Berlin,  where  a  prominent 

21 


man  awaited  him  and  took  him  to  hi& 
house.  In  the  neighborhood  lived  a  pro- 
fessor of  astronomy,  who  was  considered 
the  greatest  astronomer  in  the  country. 
Having  heard  of  the  vast  learning  of  the 
Gaon,  he  came  to  him  and  propounded  a 
problem  which  the  professors  of  the  Aca- 
demy had  for  years  been  vainly  trying  to 
solve.  When  the  Gaon  was  shown  the 
problem,  he  took  a  piece  of  paper  and  drew 
upon  it  some  figures  which,  to  the  great 
astonishment  of  the  professor,  solved  the 
entire  difficulty. 

On  his  way  to  Wilna  he  asked  his  coach- 
man to  stop  and  let  him  offer  the  "min- 
chah"  prayer,  agreeing  to  pay  for  the  time 
lost  in  waiting.  The  Gaon  descended  from 
his  place  and  commenced  to  pray.  When 
he  got  to  the  "sh'monah-essre",  the  coach- 
man drove  off  with  his  baggage.  It  was 
only  with  great  difficulty  that  he  finally  ar- 
rived at  Wilna,  and  there  again  he  had  to 
suffer  through  his  piety  and  kind-hearted- 
ness. 

The  community  of  Wilna  apportioned 
him  a  certain  weekly  sum  for  his  support. 

22 


The  messenger  by  whom  the  money 
was  sent  embezzled  it  week  after  week  for 
several  years,  and  though  Elijah  was  aware 
of  this,  he  would  not  disclose  the  man's  dis- 
honesty. When  his  wife  complained  about 
their  poverty  and  want,  he  told  her  to  go 
with  the  children  to  some  neighbor's  house 
at  meal-times  so  that  they  might  be  offered 
some  food.  He  himself  had  enough.  The 
embezzlement  of  the  money  came  to  light 
when  the  dishonest  messenger  became  very 
ill  and  confessed  his  wrong. 

R.  Saul  of  \\~ilna  once  entered  the  room 
where  the  Gaon  was  sleeping,  and  noticed 
that  the  latter  looked  care-worn.  Upon 
being  urged  afterwards  to  account  for  this, 
Elijah  replied  that  it  grieved  him  to  be- 
hold how  the  dead  were  being  punished,  es- 
pecially those  whom  he  knew  when  they 
were  alive. 

The  Gaon's  father  once  entered  Elijah's 
sukkah  on  the  third  day  of  the  Feast  of 
Booths,  and  found  his  son  in  an  unusually 
joyful  mood.  When  asked  for  the  cause 
of  this,  the  Gaon  told  his  father  that  the 
patriarch  Jacob  had  visited  him  in  his  booth. 

that   morning. 

21 


He  was  once  ready  to  depart  from  one 
city  to  another,  and  was  waiting  for  his 
conveyance.  When  the  carriage  arrived  at 
his  door,  however,  he  refused  to  enter  it 
because  he  suspected  that  the  cushion  con- 
tained shatnes.  Upon  investigation  it  was 
found  that  his  suspicion  was  well  founded. 
Similarly,  on  a  certain  occasion,  a  myrtle 
was  brought  to  him  for  his  "luldb"  which 
he  threw  aside  without  looking  at  it.  A 
close  examination  revealed  the  fact  that 
this  myrtle  was  "possul." 

When  the  Gaon  studied  he  was  so  deeply 
absorbed  in  his  thoughts  that  he  could  hear 
nothing  of  what  was  going  on  about  him. 
Once,  while  lecturing  to  his  disciples,  a 
fearful  storm  broke  out.  When  one  of 
his  hearers  remarked  the  frightful  thunder, 
the  Gaon  told  him  that  that  showed  a  lack 
of  attention,  for  one  has  no  right  to  hear  a 
thunder-crash  while  studying. 

In  the  "Sichath  Chulin  Hechadash"  about 
twenty  anecdotes  are  quoted  in  which  he 
figures.  One  is  about  the  Talmudic  say- 
ing: (Pess.  83b). 

This  saying  the  Gaon  once  jokingly  ex- 
24 


plained  as  meaning:  "Though  as  a  rule 
politeness  requires  that  a  visitor  should  do 
nothing  until  invited  by  his  host,  yet  with 
regard  to  taking  his  leave,  he  should  never 
wait  until  requested  to  depart." 

While  traveling  through  Germany,  he 
once  came  to  Zolkowo  on  the  Eve  of  Pass- 
over, and  became  the  guest  of  the  rabbi. 
At  the  "seder"  the  host  noticed  that  the 
stranger  did  not  perform  the  ceremony  ac- 
cording to  the  ancient  custom.  Since  the 
Gaon  was  at  that  time  but  a  very  young 
man  and  not  known,  his  departure  from  the 
time-honored  custom  was  mistaken  for  ar- 
rogance and  heresy.  On  the  following 
morning  the  host  related  the  incident  to 
the  scholars  of  the  town  who  decided  that 
the  rabbi  should  examine  his  guest,  and 
that  if  the  latter  were  not  able  to  display 
some  evidence  of  learning,  he  should  be 
punished  for  his  wickedness.  At  the  din- 
ner-table the  rabbi  asked  Elijah  if  he  were 
able  to  discuss  some  Talmudic  topic,  and 
receiving  no  reply,  he  again  asked  whether, 
if  some  topic  were  discussed  by  another 
person,  the  young  man  could  follow  it  un- 
derstandingly.  The  guest  replied  in  the 
25 


affirmative,  and  the  rabbi  proceeded  to  dis- 
course on  a  deep  subject  wherein  he  dis- 
played his  learning.  During  the  discourse 
the  guest  did  not  make  a  single  remark, 
which  provoked  the  rabbi  to  ask  him 
whether  he  did  not  wish  to  have  the  discus- 
sion repeated,  as  he  evidently  had  not  un- 
derstood it.  Instead  of  a  reply  Elijah 
merely  repeated  verbatim  what  his  host 
had  said.  This  convinced  the  rabbi  that 
the  stranger  was  a  man  of  unusual  talent,, 
and  he  abstained  from  further  questioning. 

The  Gaon  once  said  to  R.  David  Samuel 
Feiges,  on  the  evening  following  the  Day 
of  Atonement :  "Come,  let  us  lay  the 
foundation  for  our  sukkah."  (4)  R.  Sam- 
uel procured  some  tools,  and  was  about  to- 
begin  the  work,  when  the  Gaon  led  him  into 
his  study,  took  the  tractate  "Sukkah,"  and 
invited  R.  Samuel  to  join  him  in  reading 
it.  R.  Samuel  now  understood  what  the 
Gaon  meant,  and  laughingly  joined  in  the 
study  of  this  tractate. 

Whatever   element   of   fiction   mav   exist 


(4).  It  is  customary,  in  order  to  go  "from 
strength  to  strength,"  to  begin  the  building 
of  the  suJfkah  as  soon  as  tne  Day  of  Atone- 
ment is  over. 

26 


in  these  stories,  they  arc  of  considerable 
significance  to  us.  For  no  matter  what  may 
be  said  of  legends  and  their  origin,  this 
much  is  certain,  that  they  show  us  the  at- 
titude of  the  people  toward  those  about 
whom  they  are  gathered.  If  we  consider 
that  it  is  only  a  little  over  a  century  since 
the  death  of  Elijah,  and  that  he  is  already, 
like  Elijah  of  old,  celebrated  in  hundreds 
of  legends,  we  shall  certainly  be  helped  in 
forming  a  true  conception  of  his  greatness. 
Though  his  biographies  show  oriental  ex- 
aggerations, it  is  nevertheless  a  fact  thaf 
he  was  worthy  of  all  the  name  "Gaon"  im- 
plies, and  it  is  equally  true  that  during  sev- 
eral centuries  we  have  not  had  his  like. 


-7 


CHAPTER  III. 
IMPORTANCE  OF  THE  GAON. 
WE  shall  be  in  position  to  understand 
and  appreciate  the  Gaon's  work  if  we  realize 
that  he  lived  in  an  age  in  which  rationalism, 
pietism,  and  pilpulistic  scholarship  flour- 
ished side  by  side,  each  of  these  tendencies 
struggling  for  the  complete  mastership. 
He  gave  to  all  these  a  new  turn.  Though 
very  pious,  he  did  not  carry  his  piety  to 
the  point  of  fanaticism;  his  remarkable 
scholarship  did  not  express  itself  in  the 
mental  gymnastics  of  the  pilpulists ;  and  his 
rationalism  did  not  run  mad.  He  combined 
these  three  into  the  enlightened  study  of 
theological  and  secular  sciences,  and  the 
true  observance  of  the  "mizvoth"  He  per- 
ceived clearly,  as  did  Mendelssohn,  the 
necessity  of  a  sweeping  reform  in  Jewish 
studies.  Each,  however,  was  actuated  by 
a  different  motive,  that  of  Elijah  being 
Jewish,  that  of  Mendelssohn  non-Jewish. 
Elijah  desired  to  restore  the  true  and  bene- 
ficial study  of  the  Talmud  and  the  Bible, 
and  also  to  spread  the  knowledge  of 
28 


the  Hebrew  language  and  of  Jew- 
ish teachings  with  the  aid  of  other 
sciences ;  whereas  Mendelssohn  merely 
aimed  to  bring  about  an  appreciation 
of  modern  culture,  and  employed  the 
Hebrew  as  a  means  to  that  end.  The  one 
wished  to  have  works  from  other  languages 
translated  into  Hebrew  so  as  to  make  them 
"Jewish;"  the  other  translated  Hebrew 
works  into  German  so  as  to  give  them  a 
German  tinge  (6). 

The  first  thing,  then,  which  Elijah  did 
was  to  check  mischievous  pilpulism.  Dur- 
ing the  Middle  Ages  the  Talmud  was 
studied  not  as  a  science  but  as  a  religion. 
The  study  itself  was  a  meritorius,  God- 
pleasing  deed.  It  mattered  little  whether 
it  led  to  practical  results;  the  one  who 
busied  himself  with  the  study  of  the  Tal- 
mud was  a  righteous  man  and  entitled  to 
the  support  of  the  community.  All  of  its 
teachings  were  beyond  doubt  true;  the  con- 
clusions of  its  debates  were  fixed  verities. 
To  suggest  that  the  knowledge  of  the  Ta- 
naim  and  Amoraim  was  deficient  in  certain 


(6).  Cf.,  E.  Schulman,  in  "Mimkor  Tisroel" 
(p.  34),  Vienna,  1786. 

29 


respects  was  a  grievous  sin.  If  inconsisten- 
cies, errors,  and  incongruities  were  found 
in  the  Talmud,  they  were  to  be  explained 
away  by  dialectical  methods,  wherever  this 
was  possible;  and  where  it  was  not,  the 
teachings  of  the  Talmud  were  still  accepted 
as  true,  in  the  firm  conviction  that  any  lack 
of  clearness  was  due  entirely  to  the  ig- 
norance of  the  student.  The  Talmudist, 
therefore,  not  wishing  to  confess  himself 
ignorant,  would  search  deeply  into  every 
statement  before  putting  it  aside  as  inex- 
plicable (7).  Thus  pilpulism  developed, 
and  dialecticism  became  so  prevalent  that 
every  difficulty  in  the  Talmud  could  in 
some  way  be  bridged  over.  I.  B.  Levin- 
son  relates  that  the  desciples  of  Jacob  Pol- 
lack once  tore  out  several  pages  of  the 
tractate  he  was  reading  to  them,  and  that  to 
their  great  surprise  their  teacher  read  on 
without  observing  that  any  pages  were 
missing,  all  the  while  combining,  in  a  most 
subtle  way,  subjects  which  were  not  in  any 
way  connected.  Nor  was  this  objectionable, 
superficial  method  restricted  to  the  study 

(7).  Cf.,  H.  Gersoni,  in  The  Independent, 
Sept.  19,  1895. 

30 


of  the  Talmud  alone.  Every  subject  was 
studied  not  for  the  sake  of  knowledge,  but 
in  order  to  bring  out  some  "pshetel."  The 
reader  did  not  care  to  know  what  A.  or  B. 
said  upon  any  specific  topic,  but  he  strove 
to  discover  some  real  or  apparent  contra- 
diction in  their  statements,  which  he  could 
then  proceed  to  reconcile.  For  to  the  au- 
thors of  this  period,  as  Prof.  Schechter 
says,  the  preceding  Jewish  literature  did 
not  mean  a  fountain  of  living  waters,  sup- 
plying men  with  truth  and  religious  in- 
spiration, but  rather  a  kind  of  armory  pro- 
viding them  with  juristic  cases  over  which 
to  fight,  and  to  out-do  each  other  in  so- 
phistry and  subtlety. 

Elijah  was  the  first  to  check  this  mischief. 
He  introduced  the  most  searching  critical 
methods  in  the  study  of  the  Talmud,  and 
thus  elevated  it  to  a  science.  His  correc- 
tions and  emendations  were  neither  mere 
guess-work  nor  artificial  structures,  but  such 
as  were  justified  and  often  even  necessi- 
tated by  a  comparison  of  texts  and  original 
sources.  He  required  his  disciples  to  study 
the  Talmud  in  such  a  way  as  to  be  able  to 
.analyse  each  tractate,  to  know  in  each  dis- 
31 


cussion  who  were  the  Tanaim  and  Amoraim 
mentioned  therein,  and  what  each  of  these 
rabbis  stood  for. 

Common  sense  was  with  him  the  con- 
ditio  sine  qua  non  in  all  studies  (8).  He 
was  the  first  to  recognize — Geiger  pointed 
it  out  after  him — that  just  as  there  are 
two  modes  of  explaining  the  Bible,  derash 
and  peshat,  so  are  there  two  corresponding 
methods  in  the  explanation  of  the  Mishnah. 
In  order,  therefore,  to  understand  the 
Mishnah  properly,  we  must  not  accept  the 
comments  of  the  Amoraim  upon  it,  but  we 
must  interpret  it  literally  and  independ- 
ently of  the  Gemara  (9).  But  Elijah 
would  not  have  any  one  study  the  Talmud 
unless  he  had  first  carefully  studied  the 
Bible.  With  him,  in  fact,  the  careful  and 
grammatical  study  of  the  Bible  always  took 
the  first  place  among  the  studies.  The 
other  scholars  of  that  time  neglected  the 
Bible  altogether  (10).  They  religiously 
studied  the  Talmud,  Code,  and  the  Com- 

(8).  Cf.,  the  Gaon's  Commentary  to  Pro- 
verbs, xi  :5. 

(9).  Bernfeld,      "Toldoth     Hare  formation 
Hadosith"  (p.  115),  Cracow,  1900. 
(10).  Cf.,  Tore  Deah,  245:76. 

32 


mentaries,  but  all  they  knew  of  the  Bible 
they  obtained  indirectly  through  the  Tal- 
mud. So  generally  was  this  the  case,  that 
it  has  been  shown  that  out  of  a  hundred 
scholars  scarcely  one  knew  the  date  of 
Aaron's  death,  whch  is  expressly  given  in 
the  Bible  (n),  while  everyone  of  them 
knew  that  Moses  died  on  the  seventh  day 
of  Adar,  which  is  merely  a  guess  of  the 
Talmud  (12).  Such  a  method  the  Gaon 
opposed.  Raphael  Hamburger,  when  asked 
wherein  lay  the  greatness  of  the  Gaon, 
pointed  to  the  Bible,  saying  that  the  knowl- 
edge of  that  book  and  the  revival  of  Jew- 
ish interest  in  it,  is  to  a  large  extent  due 
to  him.  Instead  of  familiarizing  himself 
with  the  Bible  through  the  numerous  quota- 
tions from  it  in  the  Talmud,  he,  unlike  the 
other  Talmudists  of  the  time,  attained  to 
the  knowledge  of  it  by  reading  the  Bible 
itself.  In  his  later  days,  we  are  informed 
by  David  Lurie  (13),  he  studied  nothing  but 
the  Pentateuch,  inserting,  as  he  read,  the 
various  Talmudical  interpretations  and 

(11).  Numbers  xxxiii  :38. 

(12).  Kiddushin,  38b. 

(13).  Ma'aloth  Hasulom,  29. 

33 


later  rabbinical  views;  a  thing  which  was 
possible  for  him  to  do,  as  he  was  thor- 
oughly  familiar  both  with  the  Bible  and 
the  whole  rabbinical  literature   (14). 

Having  revived  interest  in  the  Bible,  he 
also  restored  the  long-neglectd  study  of 
Hebrew  grammar  (15),  on  which  sub- 
ject he  wrote  a  book.  He  likewise 
created  an  interest  in  the  Tosephto, 
the  Michilto,  Siphri,  and  Siphro,  and 
also  in  the  Palestinian  Talmud,  which 
he  corrected  and  clarified.  In  all  of 
^hic  commentaries,  and  he  wrote  one  om 
almost  every  book  of  the  Bible,  he  lays 
great  stress  on  the  true  and  grammatical 
understanding  of  the  text.  He  submitted  all 
sacred  literature  to  the  same  philological 
method  of  study  which  is  applied  to  secular 
literature.  With  a  single  reference  to  a 
parallel  passage,  or  with  a  textual  emenda- 
tion, he  very  often  tears  down  the  air- 
castles  of  his  predecessors.  His  thorough 
acquaintance  with  the  various  branches  of 


(14).  In  the  Bible  he  could,  according  to 
Lurie,  enumerate  all  the  "vavs"  and  "yods" 
•of  each  chapter. 

(15).  Neglected,  no  doubt,  partly  in  oppo- 
sition to  the  over-emphasis  on  this  subject 
iby  the  Karaites. 

34 


Jewish  literature  made  it  possible  for  him 
to  explain  a  great  many  obscure  and  diffi- 
cult passages  in  the  Bible  and  Talmud.  He 
sought  to  elucidate  obscure  passages  in 
the  Mishnah  by  citing  parallel  passages 
from  the  Tosephto.  The  difficult  passages 
in  the  Babylonian  Talmud  he  tried  to  ex- 
plain by  reference  to  the  corresponding 
older  and  simpler  passages  in  the  Palestin- 
ian Talmud. 

The  Gaon's  attitude  to  Kabbalah  is  hard 
to  define.  Graetz  finds  fault  with  him  be- 
cause he  believed  in  such  Kabbalistic  works 
as  the  Zohar,  etc.  But  if  we  consider  the 
conditions  of  the  time,  we  shall  be  apt  to 
criticise  him  less  severely  for  his  leanings 
towards  Kabbalah.  This  much  at  any  rate 
is  certain,  that  though  he  did  not  reject 
Kabbalah,  and  even  wrote  a  commentary  on 
the  Zohar,  he  was  not  influenced  by  it  as 
were  his  contemporaries.  He  did,  indeed, 
accept  the  good  side  of  its  teachings, 
namely,  to  shun  worldly  and  sensuous 
pleasures;  but  aside  from  this,  the  Talmud 
alone  was  his  guide  (16).  That  he  wrote 


(16).  Of.,     Cahan,     "Eben     Ophel,"     and 
'Hashchachar,"  vol.  V  (1874),  pp.  639-643. 

35 


a  commentary  on  the  Zohar  does  not  argue 
anything  in  regard  to  his  attitude  towards 
its  teachings  ;  for  he  did  not  expect  his 
writings  to  be  published.  His  works  were 
originally  merely  notes  to  his  readings. 
These  "jottings"  were  later  found  so  valu- 
able and  complete  as  to  warrant  their  publi- 
cation in  a  more  permanent  form.  But  we 
may  not  conclude  from  this  that  he  ac- 
cepted the  teachings  of  the  books  upon 
which  he  commented,  any  more  than  we 
could  conclude  in  the  case  of  a  modern 
Jewish  scholar  that  he  accepted  Christianity 
because  he  had  made  some  glosses  to  a 
New  Testament  text.  We  have  other  proof, 
too,  if  the  testimony  of  an  opponent  may 
be  relied  upon,  that  he  did  not  have  any 
strong  leanings  towards  Kabbalah.  A  let- 
ter (17)  of  one  of  the  Chassidic  saints, 
Shneur  Solomon,  contains  the  following 
reference  to  the  Gaon  : 


ip^y  n;n 
tfi  ma* 
'*  yrm  .erpaa  e>npn  irmna 


(17).  In  a  Chassidic  MS.,  now  in  the  pos- 
session of  Ephraim  Deinard. 

36 


vso  ftfa  KVTSP 

,5"T    in^K    'so    "Una  oyo  pi 
w  anno  ir«i  rtfnan  inosno 
waneu    nnson    DJI    , 
if1  n5>«  TK'N  't^K^i  («"-an  njn?) 
irnaan 


HDI    IOK:  no    ...n«:  IT 

.irja^  pnuvj  noi 

But  whatever  may  have  been  his  atti- 
tude towards  Kabbalah,  it  was  beyond  ques- 
tion more  favorable  towards  Haskalah.  In 
Lithuania,  at  least,  he  was  the  precursor  of 
modern  Haskalah  and  of  Biblical  criticism; 
though  this  has  been  contested  by  such 
writers,  for  instance,  as  Mr.  N.  S.  Libo- 
vitz,  who  wrote  as  he  did  (18)  not  so 
much  because  he  found  any  fault  with  the 
Gaon  —  a  thing  which  according  to  some  en- 
thusiastic admirers,  at  least,  would  be 
utterly  impossible  (19)  —  but  because  he 
wished  to  oppose  Isaac  Hirsch  Weiss,  who 
called  Elijah  ."naann  '3N,,  The  argu- 
ments brought  forward  in  the  mp2  JTIJK 
are  so  puerile  as  hardly  to  require  any 
refutation.  As  though  it  made  any  differ- 


(18).  In  Igereth  Bikoreth,  pp.  15,  10. 
(19).  Smolensky,     in     "Hashachar."     vol. 
VI.  (1875),  p.  98. 

37 


ence  whether  the  Gaon  intended  by  his 
method  of  criticism  to  pave  the  way  for 
the  labors  of  modern  exegetes,  or  whether 
he  merely  desired  to  have  a  corrected  text. 
As  though  it  mattered,  in  this  connection, 
whether  he  desired  his  disciples  to  trans- 
late secular  books  into  Hebrew  in  order  to 
promote  the  study  of  the  sciences,  or  be- 
cause he  hoped  thereby  to  benefit  the  cause 
of  Jewish  learning.  The  fact  remains,  that, 
far  from  despising  the  sciences  as  did  the 
other  Talmudists  of  his  time,  he  studied 
them,  and  even  wrote  works  on  geometry, 
algebra  and  mathematical  astronomy.  Not 
only,  he  held,  would  the  sciences  not  harm 
the  cause  of  Judaism,  but  they  could  and 
must  greatly  benefit  it.  Hence  he  made  a 
liberal  education  mandatory  on  the  Jewish 
student.  For,  he  said,  where  one  fails  to 
understand  one  thing  in  the  secular  sciences 
he  falls  short  of  the  true  knowledge  of  a 
hundred  things  in  the  sacred  law.  As  a 
result  of  this  view,  his  disciples  took  up 
the  study  of  the  sciences  with  great  zeal. 

(20.) 


(20).  Levinson,  I.  B.,  Te'udoth  Beyisroel^ 
p.  147,  Warsaw,  1879. 

38 


pnpin 

maann 


Having  himself  written  on  various  topics 
of  secular  interest,  he  urged  upon  his  dis- 
ciples the  necessity  of  translating  works  of 
secular  science  into  Hebrew.  (21.) 

nTByan  NJ^II  p"pa  wna  rum 
'10 


no  »C3  » 

nno  i?  norr  nt  nni^  nwann 
noanm    minn  noan 
no    p»nyn^    ^    nivi    ...n 
na  mojno  «wvipn 
n^an    IBOWM    on^ao 
iDim  5&ne»  1:03;  pa-  njnn 
n^oy  pan  D'xny 
n^a  piwa 


Elijah's  attitude  towards  philosophy  was 
a  very  favorable  one.  The  famous  note 
often  referred  to  in  connection  with  his 
biography,  in  which  he  is  made  to  say  that 
Maimonides  was  misled  by  cursed  philoso- 


(21).  Baruch  of  Sklov,  Introduction  to 
Euclid,  Hague,  1780.  Cf.,  also  the  preface  of 
Abraham  Simchah,  of  Amzislow,  to  Shul- 
man's  "Milchamoth  Hwehudim."  Wilna.  1884. 

39 


phy  is  surely  an  interpolation  by  a  later  hand, 
as  will  be  shown  in  a  later  chapter,  when 
we  come  to  treat  of  his  works  (22).  Not 
only  did  he  make  a  thorough  study  of  phil- 
osophy, but  he  often  quotes  the  "More"  ap- 
provingly (23).  Once  the  complaint  was 
made  to  him  that  the  "day  an"  of  Wilna, 
Judah  Ashkenazi,  recited  the  "More"  daily 
before  his  disciples,  and  he  was  urged  to 
prohibit  this  practice.  But  he  exclaimed 
in  indignation  (24)  : 


And  it  is  but  natural  that  Elijah  should 
have  favored  philosophy,  for,  as  Schechter 
points  out,  he  represented  truth  both  in 
his  literary  activity,  and  in  his  life,  which 
was  one  unceasing  longing  and  effort  after 
truth.  Not  only  was  he  content,  on  the 
physical  side,  with  a  mere  sustenance  of 
life  in  this  world,  but  he  lived  uprightly 
apart  from  any  consideration  of  the  here- 
after. When  asked  for  his  views  on  the 


(22).  Chapter  VI. 

(23).  Cf.,  Jawitz,  Kenesseth  Yisroel,  1886. 
Also  Introduction  to  Peath  Hashulchan,  Saf- 
fed,  1836. 

24).  Fuenn,  Kiryah,  Ne'emanah,  pp.   152 
and  280. 

40 


doctrine  of  reward   in  the   next   world   he 
would  say   (25)  : 

-nay*  5 


Only  that,  he  would  frequently  say  to  his 
•disciples,  was  of  any  value,  which  has  been 
acquired  by  one's  own  hard  labor.  If  an 
angel,  he  said,  were  sent  to  teach  him  the 
mysteries  of  the  Law,  he  would  not  accept 
his  services.  We  are  told  in  the  name  of 
his  disciple,  R.  Chaim,  of  Volozhin  (26), 
that  on  a  certain  occasion  the  Gaon  did 
tiot  eat  for  three  days  because  he  was  oc- 
cupied in  trying  to  unravel  the  mysteries 
of  a  very  difficult  passage,  and  it  was  only 
after  he  had  found  some  clue  to  the  mean- 
ing that  he  partook  of  food. 

So  advanced  and  liberal  was  he  in  his 
views,  that,  almost  three  quarters  of  a  cen- 
tury before  the  practice  of  uncovering  the 
head  was  introduced  into  the  synagogue  in 
Germany,  he  held  that  bareheadedness  was 
no  sin,  even  during  prayer,  but  that  custom 
did  not  sanction  it.  In  view  of  the  fact 


(25).  Brainin,      Mimizrach      Umima'arob, 
l.  IV.,  1899. 

(26).  Aliath  Eliohu,  p.  33. 
41 


that  his  contemporaries  regarded  bare- 
headedness  during  prayer  as  almost 
equivalent  to  the  violation  of  one  of  the 
Ten  Commandments,  only  as  great  a  man 
as  the  Gaon  could  permit  himself  to  be  so 
outspoken  in  his  views.  His  saint-like  life, 
his  great  fame,  and  his  universally  ac- 
knowledged piety,  saved  him  from  the 
charge  of  heresy. 

But  the  Gaon  disregarded  not  only  the 
prejudices  of  his  own  time,  but  those  of 
all  times.  He  could  not  tolerate  dishonesty 
and  falsehood,  no  matter  where  found. 
Thus,  for  instance,  in  commenting  on  the 
decision  of  the  Yore  Deah  that  the  super- 
stitious custom  of  slaughtering  any  hen 
that  crows  like  a  cock  may  be  kept  up,  but 
that  this  must  not  be  the  reason  given  for 
the  slaughtering,  he  exclaims:  (27): 
considered  it  a  happy  event  in  one's  life 
to  have  conversed  with  him,  or  to  have 

MPP  inm 
run  autf 

No    wonder,    then,    that    the    people    of 
Wilna  revered  such  a  man  as  a  saint,  and 


(27).  Of.,  the  commentary  on  Yore  Deah,. 
179:8. 

42 


been  of  any  service  to  him.  No  wonder 
that  all  the  scholars  of  his  time  recognized 
him  as  their  master.  It  seems  as  if  nature 
had  bestowed  all  her  gifts  upon  that  one 
man.  Besides  possessing  the  other  qual- 
ities referred  to  above,  he  was  endowed 
with  a  remarkable  memory  which  can 
scarcely  find  its  equal.  After  having  read  a 
book  once,  he  was  able  to  recite  its  con- 
tents from  memory  the  rest  of  his  life.  His 
keen  insight  and  quick  and  sure  grasp  were 
still  more  marvelous.  The  most  compli- 
cated passages  in  Talmudic  literature,  over 
which  other  scholars  had  to  pore  for  days 
before  they  could  understand  them,  he  was 
able  to  read  at  a  glance.  He  was  once 
shown  one  of  the  inexplicable  midrashim 
which  read  as  follows  : 


and  without  any  hesitation  he  explained  it 
to  mean  : 

"men  own  /IJNP  Dipoa, 

(which  are  indeed  the  right  places  for  the 
"tephilin"}.  When  Eibenschuetz's  Uritn 
Vetumim  appeared,  one  of  the  Gaon's  dis- 
ciples, who  had  a  strong  inclination  towards 
pilpulism,  found  delight  in  studying  it,  and 
43 


often  praised  the  work  of  the  Gaon.  One  day 
Elijah  asked  him  to  select  what  he  thought 
the  most  subtle  discourse  in  the  book,  and 
recite  it.  The  disciple  chose  a  very  long 
.and  intricate  discussion  which  he  repeated 
to  his  teacher.  When  he  had  finished, 
Elijah  said  to  him:  "If  we  wished  to  en- 
gage in  such  worthless  work,  life  would  be 
much  too  short  to  accomplish  anything,  for 
in  this  same  argument  we  could  add" — and 
here  the  Gaon  prolonged  the  discussion  so 
much,  and  in  so  skillful  a  manner,  that  his 
hearer  could  scarcely  follow  it. 

R.  Loeb,  the  author  of  miK  WHS? 

once  delivered  a  pilpulistic  lecture  which 
was  very  much  admired  by  the  scholars  of 
Wilna.  On  the  following  day  the  Gaon 
•  delivered  one  in  which  he  proved  that 
leaven  was  permitted  on  the  Passover. 
After  he  had  finished,  his  hearers  crowded 
around  him,  overwhelming  him  with  ques- 
tions as  to  whether  the  laws  regarding 

ys*!  ought  to  be  abolished.  He  then 
opened  the  Bible  and  pointed  to  the  ex- 
press command  (28))  ran 

(28).  Deut.  xvi:3. 

44 


adding:  This  is  the  truth  of  the  matter, 
the  other  was  fiction. 

Herr  Schulman,  of  Buechow  ,once  visited 
the  Gaon.  After  he  had  introduced  him- 
self, the  Gaon  asked  him — he  was  a  gram- 
marian of  great  renown — whether  he  could 
take  some  mishnaic  passage  and  vocalize 
it.  Schulman  not  being  able  to  do  this,  was 
asked  to  select  a  passage  for  the  purpose 
of  testing  the  Gaon  in  a  similar  way,  and, 
the  Gaon  without  hesitation  correctly  vocal- 
ized the  text  thus  chosen  for  him  (29). 

His  disciple,  R.  Chayim,  once  asked  him 
why,  in  addition  to  the  ordinary  phylac- 
teries, he  did  not  don  the  "tephilin"  of 
Rabbenu  Tam  in  order  to  be  on  the  safe 
side.  If  this  were  necessary,  said  Elijah, 
why  not  have  sixty-four  different  kinds  of 
"tephilin,"  since  there  are  that  many  differ- 
ent views  in  the  Talmud  as  to  the  proper 
method  of  making  them? 

In  his  commentary  on  the  Shulchan: 
Aruch  he  often  shows  a  better  knowledge 
of  the  sources  of  the  various  religious  prac- 
tices than  does  Joseph  Caro  himself;  and  in 
his  notes  and  textual  criticisms  on  the 


(29).  Ben  Poroth.  p.  67,  Wilna.  1858. 
45 


Tosephto  and  the  Seder  Olam  he  restores 
the  correct  texts  more  frequently  than  do 
those  who  were  able  to  avail  themselves 
of  the  MSS. 

These  are  but  a  few  illustrations  of  the 
phenomenal  powers  of  the  Gaon.  Many 
more  might  be  cited  to  show  that  in  him 
were  found,  in  rare  combination,  those  qual- 
ites  of  mind  and  heart  which  constitute 
what  we  know  as  genius.  And  well  for 
Lithuania  that  such  a  master  came  at  a 
time  when  he  was  most  needed. 


CHAPTER  IV. 
THE  GAON'S  OPPOSITION  TO  CHASSIDISM. 

PILPULISM  was  not  the  only  source  of 
mischief  for  the  Jews  of  the  Gaon's  time. 
A  far  greater  evil  was  now  rapidly  spread- 
ing, which  threatened  to  gain  a  powerful 
hold  upon  the  Jew  of  Lithuania — namely, 
Chassidism. 

Just  how  this  movement  originated  is 
not  known.  It  could  not  have  been,  as  has 
been  suggested  by  some  (30),  a  revolt 
against  the  excessive  casuistry  of  the  con- 
temporary rabbis;  nor  could  its  origin  have 
been  due  to  the  extreme  rigorism  of  the 
Talmudists.  In  either  case,  as  has  been 
pointed  out  by  Mr.  Ephraim  Deinard  (31), 
we  should  expect  Chassidism  to  have  had 
its  rise  in  Lithuania,  where  casuistic  pil- 
pulism  and  extreme  rigorism  had  their 
greatest  development;  and  not  in  the  wild 
ravines  of  Wallachia,  or  the  dreary  steppes 
of  Ukraine,  territories  of  mental  and 


(30).  E.  ff.,  Graetz  and  Schechter. 

(31).  InKitoth  Beyisroel,  pp.  1-12,  New 
York,  1899;  also  Zemir  'Arizim,  pp.  6-26, 
Newark,  N.  J.,  1899. 

47 


spiritual  darkness,  where  the  Talmud  was 
unknown  and  the  study  of  the  law  entirely 
neglected.  Nor  do  we  know  who  was  the 
founder  of  the  sect.  For,  although  Bcsht 
be  "the  center  of  the  Chassidic  world,  and 
Chassidism  so  intimately  bound  up  with  his 
personality  that  any  separation  between 
them  is  well  nigh  impossible,"  it  is  diffi- 
cult to  believe  that  he  was  the  founder  of 
the  sect  (32).  Not  only  is  there  no  men- 
tion of  his  name  in  the  writings  of  the 
early  opponents  of  Chassidism,  but  even 
the  Chassidic  writers  of  his  time  do  not  say 
anything  about  him.  The  book  "Zavoath 
Ba'al  Shem"  is  a  work  of  very  recent  origin. 
In  the  "Zetnir  Orizim,"  which  was  written 
only  twelve  years  after  the  appearance  of 
Chassidism  in  Lithuania,  the  name  Besht 
which  was  published  anonymously  in  the 
year  1810  at  Berditchef,  is  evidently  the 
work  of  either  an  ironic  or  fanatical  writer. 
This  absence  of  Besht's  name  in  the  Chas- 
sidic literature  is  so  much  more  curious 
does  not  occur  .  The  "Shevoche  Besht." 


(32).  For  the  legends  about  Besht  (a 
parallel  to  those  about  Christ),  Cf., 
Prof.  Schechter's  Studies  in  Judaism,  pp.  1- 
45. 

48 


for  the  Chassidim,  in  order  to  be  able  to 
produce  all  their  works  unhindered  by  their 
opponents,  established  printing  shops  in 
many  towns  and  villages  (33),  so  that 
whatever  came  from  the  pen  of  a  Chassi- 
dic  writer  was  immediately  published. 

The  most  plausible  supposition  seems  to 
be  that  Chassidism  was  an  outgrowth  of 
the  Sabbathai-Zevi  and  Frank  sects,  and 
that  it  assumed  its  present  form  under 
Nachman  of  Braslow  (1772-1811),  the 
grandson  of  Bcsht.  This  Nachman  was  a 
man  of  considerable  knowledge,  but  very 
vain  and  greedy,  and  therefore  instituted  the 
idolatrous  cult  of  "Zaddik"  worship.  The 
teachings  laid  down  by  him  are  so  repul- 
sive that  it  requires  much  patience  and 
strength  of  will  to  read  beyond  the  first 
few  paragraphs  (34).  In  the  main  they 
deal  with  the  worship  of  the  "Zaddik,"  "a 
being  who  can  be  comprehended  as  little 
as  an  angel  or  as  God  himself;  he  is  realized 


(33).  Mr.  Delnard  enumerates  34  printing 
establishments  of  this  kind,  while  outside 
of  these  there  were  only  5  Jewish  establish- 
ments in  all  Lithuania  and  Poland. 

(34).  See  Likute  Muran,  arranged  by  Na- 
than ben  Abraham  Here,  Astrog  &  Mohlleff, 
1808  and  1811. 

49 


by  faith,  not  conceived  by  thought."  The 
use  of  medicine  is  prohibited,  as  the"Zad- 
dik"  can  heal  by  prayer.  Studying  is  also 
prohibited,  as  the  possession  of  wisdom  is 
the  exclusive  privilege  of  the  "Zaddik,"  all 
Chassidim  must  confess  to  the  "Zaddik"  all 
their  sins,  and  even  after  his  death  they 
must  not  cease  to  worship  him.  In  his  will 
he  orders  the  faithful  ones  to  pray  on  his 
grave  when  he  is  dead,  so  that  their  sins 
might  be  forgiven.  (35). 

13P     I"Q     *P1K     fJHDlP     ttjm  DJ7 

JVIKB  n  I»Q  QiVK  TN  5jw  rn 
.Mm  ITS  ixfBjtftp 

While  eating,  drinking,  and  sleeping,  and 
the  other  ordinary  functions  of  the  body 
are  regarded  by  the  older  Jewish  moralists 
as  means  to  an  end,  they  become  for  the 
Chassidim  direct  services  of  God;  hence  the 
excessive    eating    and    drinking,    and    the 
"  loose  morals  of  the  Chassidim.    Immorality 
•was  especially  bound  to  flourish,  for,  bas- 
ing on  the  theory  which  denies  the  free- 
•dom  of  the  will,  they  held  that  no  impulse, 
coming  as  it  does  from  God,  should  be  re- 
sisted. (36). 


(35).  Deinard,  Kitoth  Beyisroel,  p.  6. 
(36).  Likute  Muran. 

50 


"jtfT  T"K  ' 

inn 


«    ,rn  rrvay 
nn^n  ^  ,12 
nnx  DW  y»jn?  HD 
•mix    n»no    Tinn^  Kin 
.na 

Though  some  of  our  modern  writers  in 
their  desire  for  that  which  is  novel  endeavor 
to  find  a  good  side  in  Chassidism  and  to  pre- 
sent it  in  a  favorable  light,  no  one  will  deny 
that  the  sect  aimed  at  abolishing,  or  at  least 
at  diminishing  study  of  every  kind,  that  it 
created  an  idolatrous  worship  of  the 
"Zaddik"  and  that  it  practised  a  cult  which 
was  un-Jewish.  That  the  Chassidim  "were 
second  to  no  other  sect  in  their  loyalty  and 
affection  for  one  another,"  is  but  natural. 
A  small  group  of  people  who  are  perse- 
cuted in  the  same  cause  must  necessarily 
be  drawn  into  a  closer  union  with  each 
other. 

As  long  as  the  sect  confined  itself  to  the 
remote  and  insignificant  villages  of  the 
Ukraine,  and  the  other  dark  parts  of  Rus- 
sia, its  un-Jewish  cult  could  be  practiced 
with  impunity.  Later,  however,  when  in 


consequence  of  the  Cossack  persecution,. 
many  emigrated  and  came  as  far  as  Lithu- 
ania, the  Talmudists  rose  in  indignation 
against  the  new  sect.  Wilna,  as  the  most 
important  Jewish  center  of  Lithuania,  was 
the  first  to  declare  war  upon  it.  It  was  evi- 
dent, however,  that  unless  the  Gaon,  who 
was  at  that  time  admired  and  revered  by 
every  Jewish  scholar  in  Europe,  sanctioned 
the  proceedings  against  the  Chassidim,  their 
mischievous  practices  could  not  be  checked. 
Hence  when  the  rabbis  met  in  Wilna,  in 
1777,  and  agreed  to  pronounce  the  "cherem" 
against  the  Chassidim,  the  Gaon  was  asked 
to  give  his  approval  to  it.  Contrary  to  his 
usual  practice  of  abstaining  from  any  par- 
ticipation in  controversies,  he  signed  the 
document  of  excommunication,  attaching 
thereto  the  following  comment  (37)  : 

mac    nn    nxv^  ^TJD  p«B»  *IKI 
'131  mt?y?  ny  irnin  nan  ny5  T"3y 
-I"D    or    mnnn  ^y  KUK  w*  DJ  p5 

omo 


After  the  "ban"  had  been  signed  by  Eli- 
jah, a  mass-meeting  was  held  in  the  Grand 


(37).  Fuenn,  Kiryah  Se'emanah,  p.  138. 

52 


Synagogue,  a  thousand  lights  were  lighted, 
the  shofar  blown,  and  the  excommunica- 
tion read  from  the  pulpit.  After  the 
"cherem"  had  been  read  in  Wilna  and 
also  at  the  fair  in  Zelva,  where  mer- 
chants gathered  yearly  from  all  parts  of 
Russia.  Solomon  of  Ladi,  perhaps  the  most 
important  of  the  Chassidim,  wished 
to  have  an  interview  with  the  Gaon, 
but  was  not  admitted  by  the  latter, 
who  feared  that  such  an  interview 
v\as  calculated  to  lead  the  people  to  be- 
lieve that  he  had  turned  in  favor  of  Chas- 
sidism — a  belief  which  actually  became  cur- 
rent a  little  later  through  the  trickery  of 
the  Chassidim. 

The  Gaons's  peace-loving  disposition 
•did  not  allow  him  to  persevere  in  the  per- 
secution of  the  Chassidim.  After  signing 
the  excommunication  he  desisted  from 
further  participating  in  the  controver- 
sy. Meanwhile  the  Chassidim,  resorting 
to  a  trick,  gave  rise  to  the  impression  that 
the  Gaon  had  ben  won  over  to  their  cause. 
A  blind  man  was  sent  by  them  to  various 
cities,  accompanied  by  a  boy  who  intro- 
duced him  as  the  son  of  Elijah  of  Wilna. 

53 


In  reply  to  inquiries  about  his  father's  at- 
titude towards  Chassidism  he  would  state 
that  Elijah  had  recanted,  and  that  advanced 
age  alone  prevented  him  from  doing  pen- 
ance and  traveling  in  person  to  preach 
the  Chassidic  doctrines.  At  first  this  trick 
was  effective,  for  many,  taking  the  silence 
of  the  Gaon  for  consent,  joined  the  new 
sect.  But  when  this  came  to  the  ears  of 
the  Goan  the  imposter  had  been  discov- 
ered at  Hamburg  by  a  Lithuanian  mer- 
chant— he  sent,  in  1796,  two  of  his  disci- 
ples, Chayim,  of  Serhey,  and  Sa'adiah,  to 
all  the  principal  communities  of  Russia,  to 
denounce  the  detestable  sect  in  a  new  de- 
cree of  excommunication  (38).  This  time 
the  decree  had  the  desired  effect,  for  the 
spread  of  Chassidism  was  checked,  and 
even  after  the  death  of  the  Gaon  the  in- 
fluence of  his  memory  was  powerful  enough 
to  keep  many  from  joining  this  movement. 
Besides  this  participation  in  the  controver- 
sies against  Chassidism,  Elijah  seems  also 
to  have  taken  part  against  N.  H.  Wessely 
(though  none  of  his  biographers  state 


(38).  Deinard's  Kitoth  Beyisroel   (pp.   13- 
25)  gives  the  circular  letters. 

54 


this)  (39).  The  latter,  born  in  1725  in 
Hamburg,  distinguished  himself  through 
his  Talmudical  knowledge  and  secular  edu- 
cation. He  was  at  first  manager  of  Joseph 
Veitel's  large  banking-house  at  Amster- 
dam; then  he  went  to  Copenhagen,  where 
he  established  a  bank  of  his  own.  Having 
lost  all  his  money  there,  he  went  to  Ber- 
lin in  1774  and  became  again  the  manager 
of  one  of  Veitel's  banks.  Two  years  later 
Veitel  gave  up  his  business  and  Wessely 
was  left  without  a  position.  After  months 
of  suffering  and  privation,  he  was  invited 
by  Moses  Mendelssohn,  who  had  entered 
into  intimate  friendship  with  him,  to  as- 
sist in  preparing  the  forthcoming  transla- 
tion and  commentary  to  the  Pentetauch, 
which  invitation  Wessely  gladly  accepted. 
In  1781  the  commentary  on  Leviticus,  the 
work  of  Wessely,  appeared,  and  the  scholars 
were  loud  in  its  praise  (40). 

Soon,  however,  he  drew  the  enmity  and 


(39).  See  Guedemann  and  Graetz  in  Monat- 
schrift,  vol.  XIX,  pp.  478-480,  and,  vol.  XX, 
pp.  465-469. 

(40).  Vide  Kayserling,  Moses  Mendelssohn,, 
chap.  XXIV,  Leipzig,  1888. 

55 


persecution  of  the  rabbis  upon  himself 
The  cause  of  this  was  a  pamphlet,  "Words 
of  Peace  and  Truth,"  in  which  he  urged 
the  people  of  Austria  to  establish  schools  in 
acordance  with  an  edict  of  Joseph  II.  He 
.praised  the  king  highly  and  emphasized, 
•even  too  strongly  perhaps,  the  necessity 
•of  secular  knowledge.  The  pious  rabbis  of 
the  time  saw  in  this  an  admonition  to  neg- 
lect the  study  of  the  Talmud  and  took  up 
their  weapons  against  him.  Among  those 
who  entered  the  lists  against  Wessely  were 
Ezekiel  Landau  of  Prague,  Pinchas  Hor- 
witz  of  Frankfort-on-the-Main,  and  the 
three  whom  he  mentions  expressly  in  one 
of  his  letters,  namely,  Joseph  Zaddik,  of 
Posen,  the  son-in-law  of  Landau,  David 
Tewele  of  Lissa,  and  Elijah  of  Wilna. 

That  the  Gaon  should  have  taken  part 
against  Wessely  may  appear  strange.  Yet 
•when  we  consider  how  much  Mendelssohn's 
well-meant  efforts  to  spread  secular  knowl- 
edge contributed  to  the  neglect  of  the  study 
of  the  Law  and  to  the  making  of  converts 
to  Christianity,  we  can  better  appreciate 
Elijah's  motives  in  giving  his  consent  to 

56 


the    burning   of   Wessely's   "Divre   Shalom 
Ve'etneth" 

But  of  greater  value  even  than  the 
'Gaon's  efforts  against  evil  tendencies  in 
Judaism  were  his  more  lasting  construc- 
tive activities.  But  for  his  labors  Lithuania, 
like  the  greater  part  of  Poland,  would  have 
fallen  a  prey  to  Chassidism,  and  would  have 
sunk  to  the  level  of  Podolia  and  Wolhynia, 
where  this  cult  has  produced  utter  ignor- 
ance and  degradation.  We  are  chiefly  in- 
•debted  to  him,  however,  for  his  intellectual 
and  spiritual  descendants,  that  long  line  of 
scholars  and  "maskilim"  who  arose  in 
Lithuania  during  the  nineteenth  century. 


CHAPTER  V. 
THE  GAON'S  DISCIPLES. 

WHAT  would  have  become  of  Judaism  and 
and  Jewish  literature  in  Lithuania  if  the 
Gaon  had  not  so  strenuously  opposed  the 
Chassidic  movement  is  not  difficult  to  un- 
derstand. In  all  the  Chassidic  districts 
there  is  not  a  single  rabbi  who  has  dis- 
tinguished himself  in  any  noteworthy  man- 
ner, whereas  almost  every  Lithuanian  rabbi 
has  done  good  work  of  some  sort.  In  all 
the  Chassidic  strongholds  there  is  not  one 
"yeshibah/  not  a  single  'beth-ha-Midrash'* 
where  the  Talmud  is  studied,  whereas  every 
city  of  Lithuania  has  a  "yeshibah"  and  a 
more  or  less  numerous  class  of  Talmudic 
students  (41). 

Realizing  that  through  mere  opposition 
neither  pilpulism  nor  Chassidism  could  be 
overthrown,  the  Gaon  founded  in  1780  a 
school  in  which  he  taught  a  large  number 
of  disciples  according  to  his  own  advanced 
method;  and  it  was  this  school  and  those 
patterned  after  it  that  produced  the  great 

(41).  Cf.,  Yazkan,  pp.  103-104. 

58 


Russian  Talmudists  of  the  nineteenth  cen- 
tury (42). 

On  the  site  of  this  "beth-ha-Midrash"  a 
grand  edifice  was  erected  after  the  Gaon's 
death.  A  large  marble  tablet  bears  the 
following  inscription  : 

WK"I  PIT  137 

nnna     ,D'cn 


,nyia  DIK  ^3  Tjfaj  mat?  lao^  ,nm 


ntn  n^n  inatr  nt  .mnoc'  yaw  'm 
nosn  121  53  ID>  ,11:^  n^yanx, 
nyn  cyn  n 


,VIIT    5>y  nyi 


j:  DW  o  jy^  ,D^n»3n 
5  nat  ,njnn  Kin  «5n 
a>3i    TODW    viiana    ,my^ 
.njnn 

Shortly  after  the  Gaon's  death  the  in- 
fluence of  his  school  and  of  his  teaching 
began  to  make  itself  felt  not  only  through- 


(42).  Cf.,   Fuenn.   Kiryah  Ne'emanah.  274 
276. 

59 


out  Russia  but  also  in  Palestine.  Seats  of 
learning  were  founded  and  his  disciples 
continued  the  work  of  the  master.  It  is 
worthy  of  remark,  in  this  connection,  that 
some  of  our  Jewish  historians  show  a  won- 
derful faculty  for  shutting  their  eyes  to 
facts  when  treating  of  Jewish  scholarship 
in  Russia.  Thus  one  of  them  says  in 
speaking  of  the  Gaon :  "Ein  so  feiner  unu 
klarer  Geist  sollte  man  meinen  haette  auf 
dieselben  (seine  Glaubensgenossen)  einen 
gedeihlichen  EinHuss  ausueben  und  sie  in 
eine  neue  Richtung  fuehren  muessen!  Weit 
gefehlt:  Elia  Wilna  blieb  eine  vereinzelte 
Erscheinung  in  seinem  Lande  und  in  seiner 
Zeit,  dem  man  zvegen  seiner  Froemmigkeit 
•huldigte,  dem  nachzufolgen  jedoch  keiner 
seiner  Juenger  und  Genossen  auch  nur  den 
schuechternen  Versuch  machte"  (43).  We 
have  only  to  examine  the  list  of  his  dis- 
ciples to  see  that  the  shining  traces  of  this 
great  light  are  not  and  will  never  be 
dimmed.  His  followers  have  implanted  in 
the  Russian  Jew  a  desire  for  sincere  and 


(43).  G.  Karpeles,  Geschichte  der  Jued- 
ischen  Literatur,  vol.  11.,  pp.  979-980,  Berlin, 
1886. 

60 


methodical  study  of  Biblical  and  rabbinical 
literature,  as  well  as  an  appreciation  of 
secular  learning.  All  the  Russian  scholars 
of  the  last  century  considered  themselves 
the  Gaon's  pupils,  and  as  such  they  all 
strove  to  work  in  his  spirit.  The  best 
work,  however,  has  been  done  by  his  im- 
mediate disciples,  among  whom  the  fore- 
most place  is  occupied  by  Chayim  of  Volo- 
zhin.  He  did  more  than  any  other  scholar 
of  his  time  to  carry  out  the  principles 
of  Elijah. 

Born  in  1749  in  Volozhin,  this  R. 
Chayim  occupied  no  official  post  in 
the  community,  but  was  engaged  in 
business.  Nevertheless,  he  came  to 
enjoy  great  renown  as  a  scholar.  In 
1774  he  gave  up  his  prosperous  business 
and  went  to  Wilna  to  study  under  the  great 
master.  All  his  former  scholarly  achieve- 
ments notwithstanding,  he  desired  to  begin 
anew,  for  even  the  most  elementary 
studies  took  on  a  high  meaning  under  the 
guidance  and  instruction  of  the  Gaon.  After 
studying  Hebrew  grammar,  the  Bible,  and 
Mishnah,  he  plunged  under  the  care  of  his 
master  into  the  Deep  of  the  Talmud.  When 
Ci 


the  Gaon  had  become  advanced  in  years  he 
entrusted  to  Chayim  the  task  of  establishing 
a  Talmudic  academy  in  which  rabbinical 
literature  should  be  studied  according  to 
his  own  scientific  method.  Five  years  after 
the  death  of  Elijah,  R.  Chayim  carried  out 
the  wish  of  his  master  and  established  in 
Volozhin  the  "Yeshibath  Ez-Chayim."  At 
first  only  a  few  pupils  came,  but  in  a  short 
time  the  "yeshibah"  became  widely  known 
through  the  sincerity  and  zeal  of  R.  Chayim 
(44),  and  men  from  all  parts  of  the  country 
came  to  taste  of  the  "Tree  of  Life."  At 
the  time  of  R.  Chayim's  death,  in  1828,  the 
"yeshibah'  numbered  one  hundred  students, 
and  up  to  the  time  it  was  closed  (some 
twelve  years  ago)  the  number  had  in- 
creased to  five  hundred  (45).  Upon  the 
opening  of  the  'yeshibah"  the  founder  writes 
in  a  circular  letter: 


(44).  So  zealous  was  he  in  his  work  that 
ou  one  occasion  when  a  number  of  new  stu- 
dents arrived  and  no  means  could  be  found 
for  their  sustenance,  he  sold  some  of  his 
own  clothing  and  his  wife's  jewels  in  order 
to  support  the  poor  "bachurim." 

(45).  Cf.,  M.  Hurwitz,  Derech  Ez-HacJiay- 
im  (Cracow,  1895),  for  the  history  of  the 
Yes  Ji  ibah. 

62 


xr\\>y& 

^>aa  IDUP  pio 
mxi    5>KiB"  errp  wait 
von  j/"j  in^N  n 


nain 
ain    nuaa 


nino 


UDD      'DOT 

Dai    ...njwn    "inx 
«?  ^a  /not  K 


rrnnn  ID 


Of  the  many  other  disciples  who  helped 
to  spread  the  ideas  of  the  Gaon  we  might 
mention  his  son  and  pupil,  Abraham,  who 
was  the  pioneer  of  historical  and  critical 
research  in  the  field  of  Jewish  homiletics. 
His  work  on  that  subject,  "Rab  Po'olim" 
(Wilna,  1802),  according  to  some,  guided 
Zunz  in  the  composition  of  his  "Gottes- 


(46).  Cf.,  Kaufmann,  in  Monatschrift,  vol. 
XXXIX,  pp.   136-139. 

63 


dienstliche     Vortraege"     (46).      The   most 
prominent  among  the  rest  are: 

The  brother  of  R.  Chayim,  Solomon  of 
Volozhin,  whom  the  Gaon  liked  especially 
for  his  wonderful  memory  and  keen  intel- 
lect (47). 

R.  Solomon  of  Wilkomir,  one  of  the  most 
frequent  visitors  of  the  Gaon. 

R.  Moses  Solomon,  the  rabbi  of  Wilna 
who  studied  Kabbalah  under  Elijah. 

Hirsh  of  Simititz,  known  as  the  Chassid 
of  Simititz  and  author  of  "Margolith  Ha- 
torah." 

Solomon  of  Mohileff,  who  established  a 
Talmudical  academy  in  that  city,  and  de- 
voted the  greater  part  of  his  life  to  the 
dissemination  of  knowledge  among  the 
poorer  classes. 

Benjamin  of  Sklov,  a  physician  who  had 
given  up  a  splendid  practice  in  order  to 
study  under  the  Gaon  (48). 

Baruch  Bendit  of  Sklov  and  his  two  sons, 
Simchah  and  Mendel. 


(47).  See  Margolith,  Aze  Eden,  p.  16a; 
also  his  biography  by  Bzekiel  Feivel,  Dy- 
hernfurth,  1801. 

(48).  Of.,  Fuenn,  Klryah  Ne'emanah,  277- 
79. 

64 


Solomon  of  Tlotshin,  who  had  been  a  de- 
vout student  of  the  Kabbalah,  but  aban- 
doned it  to  follow  the  teachings  of  the- 
Gaon. 

Meir  of  Wilna,  editor  of  the  Gaon's  com- 
mentary on  Mishnah  "Tahtroth." 

Israel  Sklov,  author  of  "Peath  Hashul- 
chan" ;  Chayim  of  Tubiah;  and  Sa'adiah; 
who  together  founded  the  famous  yeshibah 
at  Safed  and  in  several  other  cities  in  Pal- 
estine (49). 

Besides  these  and  the  contemporary 
rabbis  and  "dayanim"  of  Wilna,  two  more 
of  his  most  active  disciples  remain  to 
be  mentioned.  They  are  Joshua  von  Zeit- 
lin  and  Menasseh  of  Illyi.  The  former  was 
Privy  Councillor  to  Queen  Catherine  II. 
and  a  very  intimate  friend  of  her  Prime 
Minister  Potemkin.  He  did  more  than  any 
other  of  the  disciples  to  further  secular 
education.  He  was  very  influential,  and 
his  piety  and  scholarship  were  as  great  as 
his  influence.  Not  only  did  he  try  to  pro- 
mote education  himself — which  he  was  able 
to  do  owing  to  his  high  position — but  he 


(49).   Vide,     Lunez,     Jerusalem,     Vol.     I.. 
(1882). 

65 


also  brought  together  a  body  of  Jewish 
scholars,  physicians,  and  scientists,  and  es- 
tablished a  sort  of  university  on  his  estate 
in  Usczia,  near  Mohileff.  Here  every  mer- 
itorious student  found  not  only  an  oppor- 
tunity to  develop  his  talents,  with  the  aid 
of  a  large  library,  a  clinic,  botanical  and 
zoological  museums,  chemical  laboratories, 
and  the  other  equipments  of  a  good  uni- 
versity of  that  day,  but  he  also  received 
a  very  liberal  support. 

Menasseh  of  Illyi,  one  of  the  profoundest 
Hebrew  scholars  of  his  time  and  an  ideal- 
ist of  the  purest  type,  bent  all  the  energies 
of  his  pure  soul  and  lofty  mind  to  bring 
tthe  thoughts  and  methods  of  his  master, 
'the  Gaon,  into  practical  use.  So  great 
was  his  desire  to  propagate  general  culture 
among  his  brethren  that  he  even  adopted 
the  Judeo-German  dialect  for  literary  pur- 
;  poses  and  translated  into  it  his  "Sama 
Dechaye,"  a  work  on  religious  and  social 
•  ethics  which  he  had  written  in  Hebrew. 

But  while  striving  for  secular  knowledge, 

'the  Gaon's  disciples  never  lost  sight  of  the 

iprincipal  aim  of  their  teacher,  namely,  to 

irid  the  rabbinical  law  of  the  dialectical  cob- 

66 


webs  that  had  accumulated  about  it.  Hav- 
ing become  the  leaders  at  the  greatest  seats 
of  rabbinical  learning,  they  followed  with 
great  assiduity  the  Gaon's  critical  methods. 
Learned  works  on  religious  subjects,  ig- 
noring and  even  controverting  the  deci- 
sions arrived  at  by  the  dialecticians  of  pre- 
vious generations,  appeared  in  great  num- 
"btrs.  Bible  commentators  made  it  their  ob- 
ject to  explain  the  sacred  texts  strictly 
according  to  the  rules  of  grammar  and  to 
•expound  their  literary  beauty,  rather  than 
to  force  traditional  meanings  and  popular 
religious  notions  into  them,  as  had  been 
•done  by  the  commentators  of  previous  times. 
Under  the  disciples  of  Elijah  Jewish  life  in 
Russia,  religious  and  social,  assumed  a 
brighter  aspect,  and  the  combined  activiv- 
ities  of  these  scholars  brought  about  the 
epoch  of  "Haskalah." 


CHAPTER  VI. 
THE  GAON'S  WORKS. 

THE  Gaon's  works  are  very  numerous 
and  valuable.  Up  to  his  fourtieth  year 
he  was  accustomed  to  write  them  out  him- 
self; from  that  time  on  his  thoughts  would 
come  to  him  so  rapidly  that  he  could 
scarcely  jot  them  down,  which  made  it 
necessary  for  him  to  dictate  them  to  his 
disciples.  In  these  works,  numbering  as 
they  do  about  seventy  volumes,  there  seem  to 
be  clear  indications  of  passages  added  and 
removed  by  other  hands.  For  example,  in 
the  introduction  to  his  commentary  on  the 
Shulchan  Aruch  his  sons  do  not  tell  us 
that  he  expressed  a  desire  to  see  scientific 
works  translated  into  Hebrew  ;  a  fact  which 
cannot  be  doubted,  however,  as  his  dis- 
ciple, Baruch  of  Sklov,  published  the  let- 
ter quoted  in  the  third  chapter  of  this  work 
in  1780,  during  the  life-time  of  the  Gaon. 
On  the  other  hand,  a  clear  case  of  inter- 
polation is  the  passage  in  his  commentary 
on  Yore  Deah,  179:13,  in  connection  with 
the  statement  that  witchcraft  is  powerless. 


n^in    ft  ^nx  D^-D  mujn 
new    DHprtf    rmn 

68 


nnK      IBtH      Kim    KTQJ3. 

'2    p^i      .mi-inn 
.~\\xy  Kin  ^3n  rn 


s?  -imt  'jn  ri3i  '0:2  nrsryo  rain 
1  n^n^i  nioipo  nmna  pyvop  pi 
3112  intsn 


DH2 
t05?23  DH 


That  this  passage  is  an  interpolation  can 
admit  of  no  dispute.  Not  only  did  his  dis- 
ciples consider  it  a  gloss  (51),  but  its  ver- 
bosity and  the  frequent  repetitions  it  con- 
tains prove  that  it  could  not  have  come 
from  the  hand  of  the  Gaon,  whose  style 
is  so  terse  as  often  to  make  his  meaning 
obscure  (52).  Besides,  its  spirit  is  out  of 
harmony  with  that  of  the  Gaon's  entire 
system.  Not  only  his  disciples,  but  even 
his  opponents  said  of  him  that  he  favored 
philosophy  (53). 


(51).  See  Kiryah  Neemanah,  p.  152. 
(52).  Cf.,   Ben   Abraham,   Achiasaf,    1898- 
1809. 

(53).  Shne'ur     Solomon,     Introduction    to 
Mesaref  Hoavodah,  Koenigsberg.  1858. 

60 


irp 

$3  DK  irtyn  -vortf 


•nprtf    inntfn    nm 


His  works,  as  enumerated  in  the  Jewish 
Encyclopedia  (Vol.  V,  article  Elijah  ben 
Solomon),  are  the  following: 

Biblical. 

Aderet  Eliyahu,  a  commentary  on  the 
Pentateuch,  in  which  he  endeavored  to 
give  the  exact  meaning  of  the  verses,  show- 
ing that  there  is  not  a  single  letter  too  much. 
Dubrovna,  1804. 

Commentary  to  the  Prophets  and  Hagio- 
grapha.  The  only  parts  published  were 
Proverbs  (Sklov,  1798)  ;  the  portion  of 
Joshua  containing  the  description  of  Pales- 
tine and  that  of  Ezekiel  containing  the 
description  of  the  Temple,  under  the  title 
of  "Zurat  ha-  Ares"  (ib.  1802)  ;  Jonah 

(Wilna,  1800)  ;    Isaiahi-xiii;  Habakkuk  and 
Chronicles  (ib.  1820)  ;  the  Song  of  Songs 

(Warsaw,  1842)  ;  and  Job  i-viii.  (ib.  1854). 

Talmudic. 

Shenot  Eliyahu,  long  and  short  comment- 
aries on  Zera'im,  revised  by  his  pupil  Hay- 
lim  of  Volozhin.  Lemberg,  1799. 

Eliyahu   Kabbah,   on    Tohorot,   compiled 

70 


by  his  pupil  Meir  of  Wilna.     Bruenn,  1802. 

Commentary  on  Kedoshim  and  a  mystical 
commentary  on  the  Biblical  passages  quoted 
in  the  Mishnah,  both  extant  in  manuscript. 

Efat  Zedck,  glosses  to  the  Mekilta.  Wilna, 
1844. 

Commentary  and  glosses  to  the  Sifra. 

Glosses  to  the  Sifre. 

Tohorot  ha-Kodesh  (also  called  "Zer 
Zohab"}.  commentary  on  Tosef.,  Tohorot^ 
Zolkiev,  1804. 

Glosses  to  Tosof.,  Zera'ini,  Mo'ed,  and: 
Nashim.  Wilna,  1837. 

Yenishalnii. 

Commentary  on  the  order  Zera'im.  Mish- 
nah Eliyahu,  glosses  to  the  treatise  Sheki- 
nah,  printed  in  the  "Taklin  Hadtin"  of  his 
pupil,  Israel  of  Sklov,  Minsk,  1812. 
Babli. 

Hagahot  ha-Gera  (ha-Gaon  Rabbenu 
Eliyahu),  being  a  selection  from  glosses  to 
the  whole  Talmud  written  by  Elijah;  pub- 
lished in  the  edition  of  the  Talmud.  Vienna, 
1806. 

Glosses  to  Abot  de-Rabbi  Natan  and  to 
the  small  treatises ;  printed  with  his  com- 
mentary to  Abot.  Sklov,  1804. 

Noi'ellae  on  eight  treatises  of  the  Tal- 
mud. 

Halakic. 

Commentary   on   the   four   parts   of   the 

Shulhan     'Aruk.     namely,     Or  ah     Hasim,. 

71 


Sklov,  1803;  Yoreh  De'ah,  Grodno,  1806. 
Eben  ha-'Ezer,  Wilna,  1819;  Hoshen  Mish- 
pat,  Koenigsberg. 

Collectanea  on  Maimonides.  Novellae 
on  Asheri. 

Haggadic. 

Glosses  to  Pirke  Rabbi  Eli'ezer,  War- 
saw, 1832. 

Commentary  and  glosses  to  the  Seder 
'Olam  Rabbah  and  Seder  'Olam  Zuta. 
Sklov,  1 80 1. 

Glosses  to  the  Pesikta. 

Cabalistic. 

Commentary  to  the  Sefer  Yezirah. 
<Grodno,  1806. 

Commentary  to  the  Sifra  di-Zeni'uta. 
Wilna,  1820. 

Commentary  in  eleven  volumes  on  the 
Zohar,  of  which  only  a  small  part  was  pub- 
lished. Ib.,  1810  His  commentary  on  these 
works  is  a  critical  one;  he  made  many  cor- 
rections in  the  text  and  indicated  the 
sources  which  served  the  later  cabalists. 

Commentary  on  the  Tikkune  Zohar.  5 
vols. 

Commentary  on  the  Hekalot.    2  vols 

•Commentary  on  Ra'ya  Mehemna.    4  vols. 

Commentary  on  both  Idrot. 

Commentary  on  the  Midrash  ha-Ne-'elam. 

Commentary  on  the  Zohar  Hadash. 


Hadrash  Kodesh,  a  cabalistic  collectanea. 
Cabalistic  commentary  to  the  Pesah  Hag- 
.gadah.     Grodno,  1806. 

Science  and  Grammar. 

Ayyal  Meshullash,  a  treatise  on  trigo- 
nometry, geometry,  and  some  rules  of  as- 
tronomy and  algebra,  containing  400  rules. 
Wilna,  1834. 

Treatise  on  astronomy. 

Treatises  on  the  Tekufot  and  Moladot. 

Dikduk  Eliyahu,  a  short  Hebrew  gram- 
mar. Ib.,  1833. 

Ma'aseh  Torah,  a  collection  of  different 
subjects. 


73 


CHAPTER  VII. 
REFERENCES. 

AZULOY,  Chayim  Joseph,  "Shew  Hagdo- 
lim  Hechodosh"  (a  literary  encyclopedia), 
p.  22.  Warsaw,  1882. 

BARUCH  of  Sklov,  Euclidos  (transl.  of 
Euclid's  Geometry),  Introd.  The  Hague, 
1780. 

BEN  ABRAHAM,  Lezecher  ha-Gera,  writ- 
ten for  the  centennial  anniversary  of  the 
Gaon;  Achiasaf,  1898-99. 

BER,  Yissachar,  of  Wilna,  Ma'aseh  Rab 
(a  book  containing  250  Jewish  customs  by 
the  Gaon),  Introd.  Wilna,  1832. 

BRAININ,  Reuben,  ha-Gaon  Mewilna,  for 
the  centennial  in  Mimizrach  Umima'arob, 
vol.  iv  (1899). 

CYCLOPAEDIA  of  Biblical,  Theological, 
and  Ecclesiastical  Literature,  vol.  x,  p. 
1005. 

DEINARD,  E.  Kitoth  Beyisroel  (book  on 
the  various  Jewish  sects,  treating  in  par- 
ticular about  the  Chassidic  sects),  pp.  1-12. 
New  York,  1899. 

DEINARD,  E.  Zmir  Orizim  (book  on 
Chassidism,  Introd.  Newark,  N.  J.,  1899. 

EBEN  SHLOMOH,  a  Judeo-German  biog- 
raphy of  the  Gaon;  practically  a  transla- 

74 


tion  of  the  Aliyath  Eliyahu,  but  with  many 
exaggerations,  as  it  was  evidently  intended 
for  women,  children,  and  the  less  educated 
classes.  Anonymous,  Wilna,  1885. 

ELIEZER  of  Batashan,  Kinath  Sophrim,  a 
bibliographical  dictionary,  s.  v.  Elijah. 
Lemberg,  1892. 

EPSTEIN,  Solomon,  Lezecher  'Aliyath 
Eliyahu,  for  the  centennial  in  Hameliz,  vol. 
xxxvii.,  no.  216  (1897). 

FUENN,  Samuel  Joseph,  Kiryah  Ne'ema- 
nah,  a  history  of  the  Jewish  community  of 
Wilna,  pp.  133-164.  Wlna,  1860. 

FRANKEL,  L.  A.,  Wertheim's  Jahrbuch, 
xi,  357- 

FUERST,  Bibliotheca  Judaica;  s.  v.  Wilna, 
Elia. 

FUERST,  Julius,  Der  Orient,  vol.  i,  no. 
32  (1850). 

GERSONI,  Henry,  "The  Renaissance 
among  the  Jews  of  Lithuania."  Independ- 
ent, Sept.  19.  1895. 

GRAETZ,  Geschichte  der  Juden,  vol.  xi, 
pp.  108-115;  3d  ed.,  Leipzig,  1897. 

JAWITZ,  Wolf,  Migdal  Hameah,  Kenes- 
seth  Yisroel,  pp.  130-138,  Warsaw,  1886. 
Dibre  Hayomim,  4th  ed.,  pp.  105,  106,  114,. 
115.  Wars.,  1894. 

GUEDEMAN,  in  the  Monatsschrift,  in  con- 
necction  with  the  persecution  of  N.  H. 

75 


"AVessely;  vol.  xix,  pp.  478-480,  and  vol.  xx, 
,-pp.  465-469- 

JAZKAN,  Samuel  Jacob,  Rabbenu  Eliyahu 
Mewilna  (in  which  the  author  attempts  to 
.present  objectively  the  biography  of  the 
Gaon).  Warsaw,  1900. 

JEWISH  ENCYCLOPEDIA,  s.  v.  Elijah  ben 
Solomon. 

JOST,  Geschichte  des  Judenthums  und 
seiner  Sekten,  vol.  iii,  pp.  248-250.  Leip- 
zig, 1859. 

KARPELES,  Gustav,  Geschichte  der  juedis- 
chen  Litcratur,  vol.  ii,  pp.  979-980.  Berlin, 
1880. 

KAYSERLING,  M.,  Geschichte  der  Litera- 
tur  der  Juden,  p.  756.  Trier,  1896. 

LEVIN,  J.  H.,  'Aliath  Eliyahu,  biography 
-of  the  Gaon,  containing  great  exaggera- 
tions, with  notes  by  David  Lurie.  Wilna, 
1856. 

LILIENBLUM,  Chatoth  Ne'uritn,  a  satire 
under  a  pseudonym,  pp.  18-19.  Vienna, 
1876. 

LURIE,  David,  notes  to  'Aliyath  Eliyahu, 
giving  also  some  incidents  in  the  life  of 
the  Gaon.  Wilna,  1856. 

MARGOLITH,  J.  L.,  Aze  Eden,  a  book  con- 
taining five  sermons  and  a  manual  for 
preachers;  p.  i6a.  Frankfort-on-the-Main, 
1802. 

MICHAEL,  Chayim  ben  Joseph,  'Or  Ha- 

76 


chayim,  a  bibliographical  and  literary  dic- 
tionary of  rabbinical  literature;  s.  v.  Eli- 
jah ben  Solomon.     Frank f o rt-on-the-Mam, . 
1891. 

NASCHER,  S.,  Juedisches  Literaturblatt, 
vol.  xxii,  pp.  56,  73,  81,  100. 

ORACH    CHAYIM,    Commentary    by    the 
Gaon,    edited  by    his    sons ;    Intr.    Sklor, . 
1813. 

ROEST,  Katalog  der  Rosenthalschen  Bib- 
lothek;  s.  v.  Elia  ben  Salomo. 

SACKHEIM,  Abraham,  in  Ginsberg's- 
"Dvir,"  vol.  i,  p.  103.  Warsaw,  1883. 

SAPIRO,  Abraham,  Toldoth  Yisroel  Vesa- 
phruthah,  a  work  on  Jewish,  especially 
Russo-Jewish.  literature,  pp.  227-135.  War- 
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77 


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The  End. 


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